Acacia Mining Plc is considering to look at possibility of bringing on board to continue with exploration of its Kakamega Dome Plant – Liranda Corridor gold mine in Kenya.
In February 2017, Acacia announced it had initially discovered an initial Inferred Resource of 1.3 million ounces of gold.
Last year, the miner carried out a survey to establish commercial viability of the gold deposits valued at Ksh160 billion.
Further drilling ensued, leading to a marginal decrease in ounces and increase in grade to 1.2 million ounces of gold.
Scoping study was completed in September 2018. Acacia says the mining fields can potentially improve with further drilling and opportunity exists for using conventional mining methods, typically used in “small scale‟ mines.
“(We are) Looking at different options and exploring the possibility of bringing in a partner with conventional mining expertise to take the project forward,” said Acacia in its 2018 Preliminary Results Presentation.
Acacia joined the Kenyan market in 2012 after acquiring Aviva Mining Kenya Ltd. It acquired 51 per cent interest in a joint venture with Lonmin Plc, and Aviva’s right to earn an initial 75 per cent interest in a joint venture with Advance Gold Corporation.
In 2016, Acacia acquired the remaining 49 per cent of the Lonmin joint venture from a subsidiary of Lonmin for $5 million. It now owns 100 per cent of the two Special Licenses in West Kenya that make up the project; Ndori and Siaya.
On the other hand, the principal assets of the Advance joint venture are three Special Licenses in West Kenya; Bukura, Sigalagala and Rosterman.
Since 2012, through exploration spend, Acacia has increased its ownership in the Advance JV to approximately 87 per cent by completing additional exploration programmes to which Advance Gold elected not to fund.
The licences under the two joint ventures occupy approximately 1,630 square kilometres of the highly prospective Busia Kakamega – Greenstone Belt in Kenya, which forms part of the Archean Tanzanian Craton.
Previous exploration identified significant potential for gold, as well as copper, lead and zinc.
The licence areas have been divided into two large gold camps, known locally as the Kakamega Dome Camp and the Lake Zone Camp.This work has resulted in seven multi-kilometre gold corridors being identified across the project.
The Liranda Corridor, in the far northeast of the project area was the highest priority target identified.
Acacia Mining also has operations in Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and Mali. It registered a drop of 13 per cent to $663.8 million in 2018 from $751.5 million. Gold sales of 520,320 ounces were reported during the year under preview, compared to 592,861 in 2017.
The drop is attributed to ongoing standoff with Tanzanian government leading to decrease in operations and gold production.